Editorial

The financial crisis has a dramatic impact on social life, since reduced or even non-existent incomes affect people's well-being and push big parts of the population to poverty. The individuals' financial status affects health indicators such as life expectancy, morbidity, mortality and healthcare service accessibility [11. WHO (2009) Impact of the financial crisis on health and health systems. ].

The negative impact of financial crisis on health affects in a different way the social groups; thus, low-level persons and families have twice the risk of premature death and higher morbidity due to reasons related to income, education, healthcare, housing and nutrition that act cumulatively [22. OECD (2015) Focus on Health Spending.2015. ].

A recent study in 26 EU countries showed that when unemployment increases by 1%, suicides also increase by 0.79%. The same study also showed that mortality due to traffic accidents decreases by 1.39%, and that there is a non-statistically significant correlation between heart-related mortality and mortality from all other causes. Since the overwhelmed healthcare services cannot manage all medical conditions satisfactorily, the general health level decreases. The analysis by sex and age-group showed that higher unemployment levels increase mortality from suicide and ischaemic heart disease in young men, while no significant correlation was found for people over 60 [55. Karanikolos M, Mladovsky P, Cylus J, Thomson S, Basu S, et al. (2013) Financial crisis, austerity, and health in Europe. Lancet 381: 1323-1331.].

The financial crisis in Greece has put a burden on the healthcare system while stable funding and an integrated approach can help the system to become more stable and even improve itself albeit slowly. Such a collective effort in Europe could contribute to the support of health systems and consequently to excellent care for the citizens and minimum health inequalities across Europe.